The last morning of our stay in the jungle, our guide took us on a quick hike through the jungle to find lemon ants. After about twenty minutes or so, we came to a small clearing with one skinny tree in the middle of it. According to our guide, a clearing with one tree is a sure sign of lemon ants. He told us that lemon ants were ants with an extremely acidic body composition. They mutually evolved with their host tree, which adapted to withstand the elevated acidity. They ended up with a mutually beneficial relationship, the ants having a place to live, and the high level of acidity protecting the trees from competitors, leaving it to grow by itself with perhaps a better shot at getting sunlight.
Our guide showed us a small knot on the branch of the tree with small ants crawling all over. He scooped up an ant on his pocket knife and handed it on me. I tried to let it not crawl off my finger and popped it into my mouth. It tasted exactly like a little crunchy piece of lemon - awesome!
Jorie decided that since I had not died, tasting an ant sounded like fun. She popped one into her mouth, and you can tell by her expression below how cool she thought it was.
Audrey, Bentz and Amy all tried it as well, and we all agreed that this one one of the coolest thing we had done. The jungle is full of stuff like this, and it's too bad we couldn't spend a month or two immersed in it.
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